Over 200mm of Habagat rainfall snarls Metro Manila traffic

Continuous heavy rains brought by the Southwest Monsoon (Habagat) triggered hours of traffic across Metro Manila on Monday, particularly along EDSA and extending all the way to the NLEX exit.

In a “24 Oras” report by Maki Pulido, heavy traffic was already building up along the northbound lane of EDSA by around 1 p.m. due to flooding in front of a mall on North Avenue. Floodwaters had also accumulated near a mall at the corner of Quezon Avenue.

By 3:00 p.m., floodwaters had subsided from Quezon Avenue to Monumento, but traffic remained heavily congested.

In Pulido’s report, the 7-kilometer trip from the corner of Quezon Avenue to Monumento took over an hour. The observed chokepoints were in areas that typically experience heavy traffic during peak hours.

Meanwhile, traffic was bumper-to-bumper from Muñoz to Balintawak leading toward the NLEX exit, though conditions eased up slightly from Balintawak to Monumento.

Along the southbound lane in Monumento, heavy congestion was also observed from Cloverleaf heading toward North Avenue.

According to MMDA Chairperson Romando Artes, floodwaters receded within 30 minutes to an hour. He explained that widespread flooding occurred simply because the waterways were overwhelmed by the sudden volume of rain.

Citing data from PAGASA, the MMDA reported that Metro Manila received 201.7 millimeters of rainfall between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Monday. This volume is comparable to the rainfall recorded during Typhoon Ondoy in September 2009, which reached 455 mm.

Artes added that heavy traffic was triggered due to simultaneous class and work suspensions announced midday. He explained that this severe congestion was also the reason they chose not to suspend the number coding scheme, as doing so would have made traffic even worse. — Lyjah Tiffany Bonzo/BM, GMA News